SIR

See also:

• ASHLEY, WILLIAM JAMES (186o- )

ASHLEY

See also:

• EDEN
• SIR ASHLEY EDEN (1831-1887)

EDEN (1831-1887)  , Anglo-Indian official and diplomatist, third son of Robert John Eden, third Lord Auckland and bishop of Bath and Wells, was born on the 13th of November 1831, and was educated at Rugby, Winchester and the East India Company's college at Haileybury, entering the Indian civil service in 1852 . In 1855 he gained distinction as assistant to the special commissioner for the suppression of the Santal rising, and in 186o was appointed secretary to the Bengal government with an ex officio seat on the legislative council, a position he held for eleven years . In 1861 he negotiated, as was Tin-ter, " dwelling of life." Cf . Babilu, Babili, " gate of God . Babylonia, Hommel thinks that it is rather the plain about the sacred city of Eridu . It is the latter scholar to whom the " Arabian theory" of Paradise in its best-known form is due . The rivers (apart from Perath, " Euphrates ") he locates in northern and central Arabia, the " Cush " and " Asshur " of Genesis being, according to him, central Arabia and Edom respectively (Ancient Hebrew Traditions, pp . 314-316; Aufsatze u: A:bhandlungen, iii . 281-284, 335–339)• These rivers, in short, become Arabian wadis, on which see Hast . D.B. i . 132a (foot) . Cheyne, on the other hand, rejects the Babylonian explanation of Eden as " field, plain," on the ground that " Eden " was originally regarded as a mountainous tract .

See further

Driver, Book of Genesis (1904), pp . 57-60; Ency . Bib . " Paradise "; and the commentaries of Gunkel (2nd ed., 1902), and Cheyne (1907) . (T . K .